Russia, China Veto Syria Resolution From UN Security Council

07/19/2012 10:34 am ET
|
Updated
Sep 18, 2012

2.9k

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS, July 19 (Reuters) - Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution on Thursday that threatened Syrian authorities with sanctions if they did not halt violence against an uprising, thwarting Western hopes for tough action as the crisis in Syria escalates.

It was the third time that Russia, a key ally of the Syrian government, and China have used their veto power to block U.N. Security Council resolutions designed to put pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and halt the violence in a 16-month conflict that has killed thousands of people.

As efforts to forge a diplomatic solution appeared to collapse, Syrian rebels clashed with forces loyal to Assad in Damascus, a day after the killing of three close allies of the president led to fresh warnings that the situation was spinning out of control.

The vetoed resolution, which would have extended a U.N. observer mission in Syria for 45 days, received 11 votes in favor, while South Africa and Pakistan abstained.

International mediator Kofi Annan, who had sought a tough resolution to save his disintegrating peace plan, voiced disappointment, saying the council had failed "to take the strong and concerted action he had urged and hoped for."

Russia, which had proposed its own alternative resolution without the sanctions threat, said it did not now plan to bring that measure to a vote, leaving the future of the monitoring mission hanging in the balance less than two days before its U.N. mandate expires.

Britain proposed a resolution to extend the monitoring mission for 30 days and hoped to put it to a vote on Thursday, diplomats said, but it remained unclear how much backing this new measure might win.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, described the twin vetoes as "dangerous and deplorable" and said the Security Council had "failed utterly."

"The United States has not, and will not, pin its policy on an unarmed observer mission that is deployed in the midst of such widespread violence and that cannot even count on the most minimal support of this Security Council," Rice said.

"Instead, we will intensify our work with a diverse range of partners outside the Security Council to bring pressure to bear on the Assad regime and to deliver assistance to those in need."

The United States has been instrumental in forming the "Friends of Syria" group, which includes a wide range of Western and Arab countries, that has sought to increase pressure on Damascus and encourage more unity among Syria's fractured opposition.

Rice noted that the escalating violence was sharpening concerns over Syria's undeclared stockpile of chemical weapons, believed to be the largest of its kind in the Middle East.

"As the situation deteriorates, the potential that this regime could consider using chemical weapons against its own people should be a concern for us all," she said.

The British and French U.N. envoys also expressed their disgust over Russia and China's vetoes.

"The effect of their actions is to protect a brutal regime. They have chosen to put their national interests ahead of the lives of millions of Syrians," British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant told the council.

MANDATE ALMOST UP

The 15-member council still has time to negotiate another resolution on the fate of the unarmed U.N. observer mission before its initial 90-day mandate expires at midnight on Friday (0400 GMT Saturday).

Russia, China, Pakistan and South Africa have called for a brief technical resolution that would simply roll-over the mission for a short period of time.

"It would be useful to preserve the useful potential of the monitoring mission, even if it is limited in its time," Russia's U.N. envoy, Vitaly Churkin, said.

Lyall Grant said Britain's new resolution would only consider extending the mission beyond an additional 30 days if the Syrian authorities had stopped using heavy weapons and had withdrawn troops from towns and cities - and if the level of violence had decreased enough to allow the mission to work.

"We hope it may be possible to vote that later in the day, he told reporters.

Since the Security Council approved the initial deployment of the mission, the United States has indicated that Washington is unlikely to support a renewal of their mandate if the Syrian government had not implemented Annan's six-point peace plan.

White House spokesman Jay Carney, briefing reporters aboard Air Force One as President Barack Obama headed for Florida, said the United States does not support extending the monitor mission after the failed resolution.

Britain, France, Germany and the United States had wanted the Security Council resolution be placed under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which allows the council to authorize actions ranging from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military intervention.

Western council members have said they are talking about a threat of sanctions on Syria, not military intervention. Their vetoed resolution had contained a specific threat of sanctions if Syrian authorities did not stop using heavy weapons and withdraw troops from towns and cities within 10 days.

Russia made clear days before the vote it would block any such move, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov describing the threat of sanctions as "blackmail."

The Security Council initially approved the deployment of the observer mission, known as UNSMIS, to monitor a failed April 12 ceasefire. UNSMIS suspended most of its monitoring activity on June 16 due to increased risk from rising violence. (Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick in Washington and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Andrew Quinn; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

09/09/2012 12:25 PM EDT

Syria Blasts Aleppo By Air

09/05/2012 7:50 AM EDT

Syrian City In Flames

08/25/2012 1:45 PM EDT

Lebanese Pilgrim Freed

Hussein Ali Omar, 60, one of 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims that Syrian rebels have been holding for three months in Syria, hugs his mother, right, upon arrival at his house in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 2012. Syrian rebels freed Omar on Saturday in a move aimed at easing cross-border tensions after a wave of abductions of Syrian citizens in Lebanon. The Shiite pilgrims were abducted May 22 after crossing into Syria from Turkey on their way to Lebanon. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

08/24/2012 12:22 PM EDT

Daraya, Syria

This image made from video and released by Shaam News Network and accessed Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012, purports to show the funeral of children in Daraya, near Damascus, Syria. Syrian troops backed by tanks and helicopters broke into a Damascus suburb on Thursday following two days of shelling and intense clashes as part of a widening offensive by President Bashar Assad's forces to seize control of parts of the capital and surrounding areas from rebel fighters, activists said. At least 15 people were killed in the offensive on Daraya, only a few miles (kilometers) southwest of Damascus. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network SNN via AP video)

08/24/2012 11:05 AM EDT

Lebanon Sees Heaviest Clashes In Months

Clashes between Assad supporters and opponents of the Syrian regime killed two people in Lebanon on Friday, the Associated Press reports. 17 people were injured.

The AP gives more context:

Syria was in virtual control of its smaller neighbor for many years, posting tens of thousands of troops in Lebanon, before withdrawing under pressure in 2005. Even without soldiers on the ground, Syria remains influential, and its civil war has stirred longstanding tensions that have lain under Lebanon's surface.

08/24/2012 11:02 AM EDT

Tripoli, Lebanon

A Sunni gunman fires a gun during clashes that erupted between pro and anti-Syrian regime gunmen in the northern port city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Friday, Aug. 24, 2012. The latest round of fighting first erupted on Monday in northern Lebanon and at least 15 have been killed in Tripoli this week and more than 100 have been wounded in fighting that is a spillover from Syria's civil war. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

08/24/2012 11:00 AM EDT

Refugee Numbers Soar

08/23/2012 2:00 PM EDT

Azaz, Syria

Syrian boy Musataf Alhafiz, 11, who fled his home with his family due to fighting between the Syrian army and the rebels, carries his brother Saif, 9 months, while he and others take refuge at the Bab Al-Salameh border crossing, in hopes of entering one of the refugee camps in Turkey, near the Syrian town of Azaz, Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012. Thousands of Syrians who have been displaced by the country's civil war are struggling to find safe shelter while shelling and airstrikes by government forces continue. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

08/23/2012 12:09 PM EDT

Heaviest Bombardment This Month

Helicopter gunships shelled Damascus on Wednesday as Syrian security forces intensified their assault on the capital. Activists report that at least 47 people were killed.

"The whole of Damascus is shaking with the sound of shelling," a woman in the neighborhood of Kfar Souseh told Reuters.